I'm reading one of his newer books ("Now You See Her") with my mother and holy crap is it horrible. Seriously, the dialogue, plot and characterization is just ridiculously bad. Is that normal for him? This is the first book of his I've read and I know he's a popular author, but I don't really trust the general public's taste in literature.
I did when I was younger, mostly Agatha Christie (I even have a tiny dog named after her now).
These days I mainly read biographies, memoirs and historical non-fiction, with a smattering of fiction. From time to time there will be a mystery built into the subject matter- the book "City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt starts with the burning of the Fenice (a Venetian opera house), and the author discusses the investigation and all the various players involved, but its really a book about Venetians, and the culture of Venice (and a beautiful, funny book, btw).
"The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson is another good one; half the book is about H.H. Holmes, kind of a factual retelling of the construction of his creepy ass "murder castle", which is thrilling in itself, though not exactly suspenseful, while the rest of the book is about Chicago's World's Fair.
Do you have any recs? I've been reading a lot of war memoirs lately, and I could really use some quick and easy filler books to read in between them.
Agatha Christie! I loved Agatha Christie when I was young too. Poirot and Miss Marple and Tommy and Tupence, I loved them all. Have you watched Gosford Park? It reminded me so much of an Agatha Christie novel, it was a joy to watch.
I'm going to download "City of Falling Angels" and "The Devil in the White City", thank you for the suggestions :)
These last few years I'm tending to read more books by South American authors, I'mnot sure why. The last one I read was "The War at the End of the World" by Mario Vargas Llosa. That one had a lot of Brazil's history and political ideologies mixed in. I've read some books by Jorge Amado that I loved and "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Garcia Marquez was very enjoyable too.
Although recently I've spent all my reading time reading fic XD
I love Gosford Park! I watched it everyday for two weeks when I was sick a few years back, but it never occurred to me to equate it with an Agatha Christie novel. I'll have to watch again (and possibly dig up all my old Agatha Christie books).
Thanks for the recs. I also spend a lot of time reading fic, and I'm really trying to cut back. This goofy James Patterson book really isn't helping things- it's writing, plot and characterization is worse than about 90% of the fan fic I've read recently, and I read a lot of fic.
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James Patterson
(Anonymous) 2012-07-10 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)Re: James Patterson
(Anonymous) 2012-07-10 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)Re: James Patterson
(Anonymous) 2012-07-12 12:29 pm (UTC)(link)These days I mainly read biographies, memoirs and historical non-fiction, with a smattering of fiction. From time to time there will be a mystery built into the subject matter- the book "City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt starts with the burning of the Fenice (a Venetian opera house), and the author discusses the investigation and all the various players involved, but its really a book about Venetians, and the culture of Venice (and a beautiful, funny book, btw).
"The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson is another good one; half the book is about H.H. Holmes, kind of a factual retelling of the construction of his creepy ass "murder castle", which is thrilling in itself, though not exactly suspenseful, while the rest of the book is about Chicago's World's Fair.
Do you have any recs? I've been reading a lot of war memoirs lately, and I could really use some quick and easy filler books to read in between them.
Re: James Patterson
(Anonymous) 2012-07-12 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)Agatha Christie! I loved Agatha Christie when I was young too. Poirot and Miss Marple and Tommy and Tupence, I loved them all. Have you watched Gosford Park? It reminded me so much of an Agatha Christie novel, it was a joy to watch.
I'm going to download "City of Falling Angels" and "The Devil in the White City", thank you for the suggestions :)
These last few years I'm tending to read more books by South American authors, I'mnot sure why. The last one I read was "The War at the End of the World" by Mario Vargas Llosa. That one had a lot of Brazil's history and political ideologies mixed in. I've read some books by Jorge Amado that I loved and "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Garcia Marquez was very enjoyable too.
Although recently I've spent all my reading time reading fic XD
Re: James Patterson
(Anonymous) 2012-07-14 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)I love Gosford Park! I watched it everyday for two weeks when I was sick a few years back, but it never occurred to me to equate it with an Agatha Christie novel. I'll have to watch again (and possibly dig up all my old Agatha Christie books).
Thanks for the recs. I also spend a lot of time reading fic, and I'm really trying to cut back. This goofy James Patterson book really isn't helping things- it's writing, plot and characterization is worse than about 90% of the fan fic I've read recently, and I read a lot of fic.